Carriage control mechanism for photocomposing apparatus and the like



Aug- 8, 1950 M E MILLER 2,518,166

CARRIAGE CONTROL MECHANISM'FOR PHOTOCOMPOSING APPARATUS AND THE- LIKE 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 17, 1946 Aug. 8, 1950 M. E. MILLER I 2,518,166

CARRIAGE CONTROL MECHANISM FOR PHOTOCOMPOSING APPARATUS AND THE LIKE Filed Sept. 1'7, 1946 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 LJI I \Hlllllllllllllllli. =9

i'lr-lala ll II II II II II Aug- 8, 1950 M. E. MILLER 2,518,166

CARRIAGE CONTROL MECHANISM FOR PHOTOCOMPOSING APPARATUS AND THE LIKE 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Sept. 17, 1946 7 4 f? M, M W W r W W 4 R W El EEBEEBEEEEBEBEEE 1950 M. E. MILLER 2,518,166

CARRIAGE CONTROL MECHANISM FOR PHOTOCOMPOSING APPARATUS AND THE LIKE Filed Sept. 17, 1946 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Patented Aug. 8, 1950 CARRIAGE GONTROL MECHANISM FOR, rnorrocomeosme APPARATUS AND,

THE LIKE MaurieegElMiller; AddisomN' Y. Application S'eptembepfl, 1946; Serial Nmfi97g427 oFhand-set or machine=setztypeg I'n' themroe i duction of: any: such composition; photographi caliwand withqutr the usel'ofi: actualrtype; a most serious=.problem; consists-in justifying the lines; or -inw other words, in so spaoingz'thevle-tters andwords that: each line isreven in; appearance; and:.

endsz. exactly ati-the right-hand margin; of: the column: By -the apparatus of; the; presentvine ventionthis mayvbewasilwand precisely; accomr,

plishedi v As islwell known, printers; type of any particur tion; of; each; line, Of? composition; by inserting;

lanfont vary in width according to the width. oflthe characterszrepresented: Thereforeghin proe ducing' a;-photog1'=a'phicimagea of azline: ofe print v ing WithOlWTthetllSB of actual typev hutg-bykindievidiiaHy: photographing" the characters: ontov a film-s which-isadvan'ced'zintermittently; itziis, nec-v essany that each: movement of? the film: shall exactly-correspond t'o t'he width ofrthe last imagepi photographedtlfereom According rto.thei present:

inventionthis is accomplished bywcontmlling the:

movements: of thefilm by means-eff: a; carriage provided with'. aiplurality: of: moyablez stop.;mem.-. bets, adapted tocooperateiwith atfixed stopmeme. ber'," the-extentof each movement of; thexcarriage being limited accordingatovthe number of;

movable stbp inembers' which are movedziout Off alignment withthe fixed stop memben. The. number of movablemembers affected in each? inst'anceisdn turnrgoverned bwth'e' width offiohecharacter tohe phot'ograph-edi"through theme dium of a'plurality of members: of val yingriwidths. which are selectively engaged with saicl movable stop membere to elevate r them s out of5 alignment:- with 'the fixed StOp memben The members of varying widths niayconvenientlytake the form:

of type hammers; generally similar" tothose-of? a: typewriter; a-rr'angech in a semi-'-circula1'- bank;- and eachbearing 'the representation; of a: chat I aeter om blank representingia' space. Upon: the

aforesaid} it"isconvenient toemploy: a s'tencil' which is cut on-a separate unit offthe apparatus;

which must: also make: provision fon'justifyingu the lines; 'l oxaccomplish-this; arsi-niilan anremgee' nient 'ofi movable-marriage and bank 'Ofi type- E 'gureimsis a section-ondineeliedzio fi il s itei iiclai'ms. (01. 191-84).

In 'order to efiect the autbmatic operations' hammers is employed, the; type hammers-initialize instance'being; manuallyactuated; to simultanegouslyt out; thei stencil and to; produce, cm. a sheet; of; proof: papeiz: supported on' aplaten:- secured; tothe mos/able ca mwixaige; a1.-prin.te d or typed proof-i ofl the-material being set: up. Hereagain the-i type hammerszyary in' width according toithes, characters which they bear, and; means are; EH11" vided.-for. movingboth carriage-and stencil-me? tween words; together with; meansiior-jnstifyingi; the; stencil atvv the end of each: line-iof proof thee amount, of additional space; to be insertedFbe-M tween wordsgbeing; determined; by comparing lthe typediproof line with: agfixed: scale: Meansyareaprovidedzfor alteringgthe stencil; at the-sampler;

additionalgspacerbetween words-- as may benec essarygl to the carriage-control;mechanismused bflth-iin the stencibcutting and photographiciunits 4 Accordingly ituis thegeneraLobject of thefpres-s entv invention to; provide apparatus.- of; the type; described in the: foregoing paragraphs, and. morer specifically, toproyide-qapparatus as definedqini; the-appended claims other and. further; oh jects and advantagestwillhe apparent from; the; description which: follows-,; taken; in; connectiom with: the-accompanying; drawingsin which-W, Figure 1? 1519: plan view-of. the stenciLcuttin'g; unit-,ofthe presentinventiong; 1 Eigure is.-a:. section: on line' 2-4, ofiF e rert Figure 2a; a: detail viewshowing/the means; forrbringing aboutzanz in r ased advanc fift h i stencilswhenrthewoltd space.- key s: pres sed-;:.

Figure 3 is an enlarged;fragmentaryrsectiom online;3e-sgofi-Figureit Figure-4 is assectionzon linev 4';4;of;Figure;.1 n Figure 51s? a: fragmentary section: onaline: 5w v5- ofiEigureL; t Figure 7 6a is a fragmentarysection: on. line! (re-6;; OfFigurez2; Figure 7:- is': a fragmentary,- sectionyom line; lg- 1: of-fliigurek- 11; t I

Figure e'isia viewwpartlwinielevationzandpartlw in; section; oft the spline carriage of: the;device;- of Fi'gure 1:; I t Figure 9 isianieniangeisectionalyview off'a 9911: tion-aof: the splinezandzspline ,carriagerotEig-ur Figure 10: is a sectionalz view" illustratin v. single spline invtheyspline carriageeof- Figures Figure /Iris ahperspectiye view= illustmtin 8eg roup of spiinesaarranged in the: cahriag' Figure 8;

Figure 13 is a partial plan view of a stencil cut by the device of Figures 1-12; and

Figure 14 is a circuit diagram for the device of Figures 1-12.

In order to facilitate an understanding of the invention, reference is made to the embodiments thereof shown in the accompanying drawings, and detailed descriptive languageis employed. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the invention is thereby intended and that various changes and alterations are con templated such as would ordinarily occur to one skilled in the art to which the invention'relates.

Referring to Figures l-14, inclusive, the stencilcutting device, which in many respects resembles a standard typewriter, comprises generally a frame II! which may take any suitable form and includes longitudinal, transverse and vertical supporting and retaining members as required; a fixed guideway consisting of guides II and I2 supported on the frame I;'a carriage I3 mov-f able in the guides II and I2 and carrying a* platen I4 a bank of type hammers I 5 each bearing a printing character such as a letter, numeral, space or punctuation mark, etc., and each adapted to be operated by a key I6; means beneath the bank of keys I6 for intermittently advancing a stencil I! which may consist of paper of suitable strength and texture; means associated with said keys and hammers for punc-' turing said stencil with a series of apertures corresponding to the keys struck; a space bar I8, having means for' puncturing said stencil to indicate word spaces and'which also operates 'a type hammer having a blank face corresponding to a word space; and a'bank of space plungers' or punch rods I9 for puncturing "or punching said stencil to indicate additional spaces between wordsfor the purpose of justifyingthe lines of print in the final photographic film.

hammers I5 serve, with the aid of the usual typewriter ribbon 20, to record on the 'proof'paperf 2I fthe sequence of characters'struck and, there fore, the nature of the 'stencil'which is'simultaneously cut. An important difference from the conventional typewriter, however, resides in the fact that the type hammers I5- vary in width accordingto the width of the characters Whichthey bear, just as in the case of printers type. Therefore, the characters recorded on the proof paper 2l are evenly spaced as inprinting rather than unevenly spaced as in typewriting. This feature, of course, requires unequal movements of the carriage l3,'which are brought'aboutinthe manner to be described. 1

The carriage I3 is, as described above, movable betweenthe guides II and I2,""and is biased to the left by means of a spring 22 and tape 23. Return of the carriage to its right-hand position is accomplished by pressure on the lever 24 which also, in the conventional manner, simultaneously 1 advances or rotates the platen I4 to the extent of a line space. Control of the leftward or writing movements of the carriage I3 is secured by the cooperation of a fixed stop member 25 (Figures 3, 8, 12) which is in the form of an elongated flat bar paralleling the guides II, I2, and

a large" number of thin, platelike movable stop members 26 supported within the carriage I3, which movable stop members, for convenience, will hereinafter be referred to as splines. The form of the individual splines 26 is best seen in Figure 11.

The'splines 26, each of which is of a thicknes staggered as seen in Figure 11, for cooperation with leaf springs 30 (Figures 9 and secured to the cover 3I of the carriage I3, for maintaining the splines26 normally in their lowermost position. At the beginning of a line, i. e., when carriage I3 is in its extreme right-hand position,

' all of the Splines are in lowered position and the leftwardmost spline is in contact with the righthand end of fixed stop member 25, restraining the carriage from movement to the left.

540 In the operationof the stencil-cutter the type Each type hammer I5 has a head portion I5 which not "a thickness also a multiple of. a

point, and is adapted, when elevated into aposition where a character is' struck on the proof paper 2|, to engage the'tongues 28 of a certain number of splines corresponding to the thick: ness of the hammer, raising those splines, with l in the carriage I3, until the tongues are clear of the stop member 25, thus permitting the carriage to move leftward to the extent of the thick- At the same time,

ness of the affected splines. by virtue of the punch rod 32,. one of which is associated with each lever I6, a hole is punched in the stencil I'I corresponding, by its lateral position, to the character which is printed'on the proof paper. To facilitate vthepunching operation, the stencil I1 passes between upper and" lower guides 33, 34' each of which is apertured" to receive any one of the punch rods 32 as-it is depressed by pressure on its correspondin key I6;-i

In order to ensure smooth operation of the de-r vice, it is desirable'to employ means, to prevent;

the carriage from moving during that portion of the "type'hammer stroke while the hammer is in- Likewise, it is .nec.es-* "sary to ensure that the affected splines remain.-

in raised position after the hammer recedes and To. this end,"I employ'a solenoid actuated cam 35 I the solenoid 36 being energized,"

contact with the splines;

whilelthe carriage is moving to the left.

(Figure 1), through'the operation of aswitch 31 which is closed by the type hammer as the latter approaches-contact with the platen I4 (Figure z).

The cam 35 exerts pressure on two brakingdee vices, 3B (Figure2), which acts on the carriage;

I3, and 39 which acts on the newly raised splines. The cam 35 is so shaped that the pressure on the brake 38 is both applied 'and released slightly before the equivalent efiects upon the brake 39.

Advance of the stencil sheet is accomplished by, means of teeth on the roll .40 (Figure 2),- which engage feed holes in the edge of the stencil sheet, the roll 40 being rotated the space 'of one tooth by each actuation of a type hammer. The plunger 4! (Figure '7) is provided with two pawls 42 adapted to engage teeth. 43 on the opposite end of roll 40 to that which engagesthe feed holes of the stencil.

The plunger '41 is surmounted by, a rod 44 which extends laterally of the machine so asto; be acted on by any lever I6. which may be depressed, whereby the plunger is loweredtotheextent, that, upon its return movement, the roll is rotated to the extent of 'one tooth'43.. Upon actuation of the space'key I8, however, and for. reasons to be hereinafter'explained, the plunger -,.r ll, is depressed further} by contact with the proimpa a]; of. the space bar lever IIBQKFigJUIe Z lQso ,that its return. motion rotates the roll 40 'to the extent of two, teeth 43,.wherefore the stencil I1 is advanced twicethe normal distance. The, space, key 18 is provided with a'punch rod which punctures the stencil l! in a location which indicates, anormalspace between words.

The justifying apparatus comprises four rows of punchrods generally indicated at 19 (Figural), the rowsbeing designated45, 46", 4 1 and 48,respectively, the rows corresponding to 1-point, 2-point, 3-point .and 4-pointspaces. The stencil guides 33" and 34, which underlie the rods iii, are provided with holes corresponding to each of the rods of the rows 45, 46, 41 and 48, and the guide 3*" is ele'ctricallywoundso as, when the winding is energized, to constitute anelectro-magnet for attracting the steel punchrods 19. A convenient key 49 (Figure l). vactuates a switch 5i! (Figure 1.4) which controls. the electro-magnet circuit.

previously described, eachfactuation of the spacefkey 1-8 punches the stencil to indicatea word space, advances the carriage l3. aLco'rresponding distance, and also advanceslthe. stencil double .the normal "distance." Therefore, when a line; of .text has been punched in the stencil therewill be a certain number of space apertures in the. stencil, each of which will underlie one of the rods of the row 48. If, now, the key 49 is depressed, the guide plate-34 will be magnetized and each of the rods I9 which corresponds to one of the word-space holes in the stencil will be drawn down through the corresponding hole, thus indicating the location of the wordspaces. fixed pointer 59 (Figure 2) and scale 5| on the carriage [3, by means of which he may ascertain the number of points of space necessary to justify the line. Assuming that the line of text consists of seven words, there are six wordspaces and assuming that thirteen points of additional space are necessary to justify the line, it is apparent that five of the word-spaces must be increased by two points each, and the sixth by three points. For this purpose, each rod I9 of each row 4548 is serially numbered. In order to insert an additional two-point space between each contiguous pair of the first six words, the operator will depress each next lower numbered rod of row 46 than the rods of row 48 which indicate the word spaces in question. To insert a 3-point space in the last word-space he will depress a rod in row 41 which is serially numbered one number lower than the last depressed rod in row 48. By this action the additional holes are punched in the stencil, in appropriate location, to indicate the required additional points of space to justify the line. The strip of stencil may now be severed by the knife device 55 (Figure 4) preparatory to feeding it to the photographic apparatus. By reference to the typewritten proof the operatormay ascertain if any errors have been made and, if so, may discard the stencil and re-set the line of text.

The photo-compositor, like the stencil cutter, comprises a bank of type hammers of varying widths, and a carriage whose movements are controlled by means of the cooperation of a plurality of movable splines with said hammers. Unlike the stencil cutter, however, the photocompositor is wholly automatic, once the controlling stencil has been introduced. The type hammers are provided with faces corresponding to all of the hammers l5 of the stencilcuttin device, including blank faces corr'esp'ondingto 1 2-, 3- and' 4-point spaces or multiples thereof.

A fixed ca'meraservesto photograph each type face, as .it is elevated into focus, upon a movable film from. which, according. to known methods, the printing plate is subsequently produced. The general construction of the splines and spline carriageisthe same as .in the case of the stencil cuttingdevice, and therefore, need notbe clescribed. 1' p Since the stencil has been punched to insert the proper' amount of space between Words to justify each line of proof, the photographically composed lines will likewise be exactly justified in the automatic operation of the photo-compositor.

The operator now has recourse to a Having thus described the invention,'what is claimed as new and desired to be secured; by Letters Patent is: p

1. In apparatus of the'character' described, a carriage movable along a fixed guideway, means for moving said carriage, and means'for' controlling the said movement, said last means com-. prising a fixed stop member, a continuous series of closely spaced movablestop members associated with said carriage and normally disposed in alignment with said fixed stop member, and means for moving a pre-sel'ected number of'm'ovable stop members out of alignment with said fixed stop member whereby said carriage is permitted to move a corresponding distance along said guideway.

2. In apparatus of the character described, a carriage movable along a fixed guideway, means for moving said carriage, and means for controlling the said movement, said last means comprising a fixed stop member, a' plurality'of movable stop members associated with said carriage and normally disposed in alignment with said fixed stop member, and means for moving a pre-selected number of movable stop members out of alignment with said fixed stop member whereby said carriage is permitted to move a corresponding distance along said guideway, said last means comprising a bank of type hammers of varying widths and means for selectively moving said type hammers into engagement with said movable stop members.

3. In combination with apparatus as defined in claim 2, brake means for preventing movement of said carriage while a type hammer remains in engagement with said movable stop members.

4. In combination with apparatus as defined in claim 2, means for maintaining said disaligned movable stop members in disalignment after they have been disengaged by a type hammer and until they have passed said fixed stop member.

5. In combination with apparatus as defined in claim 2, brake means for preventing movement of said carriage while a type hammer remains in engagement with said movable stop members, and means for maintaining said disaligned movable stop members in disalignment after they have been disengaged by a type hammer and until they have passed said fixed stop member.

6. In combination with apparatus as defined in claim 2, brake means for preventing movement of said carriage while a type hammer remains in engagement with said movable stop members, electro-magnetic means for actuating said brake means, and a switch controlling said electromales magnetic means and adapted to be actuated by said type hammers.

7.,,In combination with apparatus as defined in claim 2, brake means for preventing movement of said carriage while a type hammer remains in engagement with said movable stop members, said last means being actuated by said type hammers as they move into engagement with said movable stop members.

8. In combination with apparatus as defined in claim 2, means for maintaining said disaligned movable stop members in disalignment after they have been disengaged by a type hammer and until they have passed said fixed stop member, said last means being actuated by said type hammers as they move into engagement with said movable stop members.

9. In combination with apparatus as defined in claim 2, brake means for preventing movement of said carriage While a type hammer remains in engagement with said movable stop members, means for maintaining said disaligned movable stop members in disalignment after they have been disengaged by a type hammer and until they have passed said fixed stop member, said brake means and said last means being actuated by said type hammers as they move into engagement with said movable stop members. 10. In combination with apparatus as defined in claim 2, electro-magnetic means for maintaining said disaligned movable stop members in disalignmentafter they have been disengaged by a type hammer and until they have passed 'said fixed stop member, and a switch controlling said electro-magnetic means and adapted to be actuated by said type hammers.

11. Apparatus according to claim 2, including a platen secured to and movable with said carriage and adapted to support a sheet of paper, and an inked ribbon supported adjacent said platen, said platen being so positioned that said ribbon is pressed against said paper by said type hammers as the latter engage and move said movable stop members. 7

MAURICE E. MILLER...

REFERENCES CITED The following referencesare of record in the file of this patent: I

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

